Painting Workshop

(I hope to paint this lovely)

This has been a week I can tell you.  I hit the ground running Monday morning and finally last night I was able to sit, just sit.  My head hit the pillow about 8:15 and with a brief wake-up at 9 pm, I then slept until 6:30 this morning.  Monday and Wednesday were of course work and watch Rio days.  Tuesday and Thursday were painting days, but not the usual painting days.  As I posted last time, we, my group of friends, were to paint with Diane Ainsworth at one of our new lease spaces that has not rented yet.  It was quite a learning experience and I felt so free in what I was putting on canvas.  She also critiqued our art, which was a first for me.  I was a bit scared of it but she liked my art and the only suggestion was to "lose the edges more."  That is her impressionistic style which I venture into a lot.


We had a thrill to see the different paints she used and of course I went right out the next day and purchased some more.  Like I need anymore.

The first day we did what she called a thumbnail sketch before we painted.  Her thumbnail was more of a very small scribble but mine was a bit more precise and larger.  Then we did a value scale and then the color.  I chose the nutcracker I brought and plan on painting it on an actual canvas because it was such fun to do. 

The we moved on to still life.  She set up many, many things on the table and I was shocked thinking we were to paint ALL of it but she said that she sets up several things and just picks out parts to paint. WHEW, that was a relief.  I chose the limes in the corner as they "spoke" to me.

She had me give the hint in the background of the brass thing-a-ma-bob and it worked and she loved what I did.  We did a bit of painting of palette knife technique.   

Thursday was portrait or figure drawing.  That I have not really done from a real model since I was 14 years old in 9th grade art.  Her husband, Robert, was our model and quite a good model he was.  Very still he sits.  

Now don't judge as it was definitely a rough go at it but quite fun.

Then she painting a landscape in about 15 minutes....WOW...I had the chance to purchase and should have but just not my style to spend that kind of money.  Even though it was a very good price for what hers normally sell for I just couldn't do it.   

See the space we had, it was just awesome.  The Hubby got on top of the office storage space and took our photo.